A distributed NFV orchestrator based on BDI reasoning

Network function virtualisation (NFV) decouples network functions from physical devices, simplifying the deployment of new services. As opposed to traditional middleboxes, VNFs can be dynamically deployed and reconfigured on demand, posing strict management challenges to networked systems. Selecting VNFs from a repository, defining where they will be placed in the virtualised network as well as chaining them to achieve the desired behaviour are problems that have to be tackled by an orchestrator. In this paper, we propose a distributed approach to NFV orchestration using belief-desire-intention (BDI) reasoning, addressing the selection, placement and chaining problems through the interaction among autonomous software agents, which collectively work in a distributed and decentralised manner. Agents are capable of bidding on the allocation of resources for new VNFs, as well as managing the chaining of VNFs. Further, we validate our theoretical model through a DDoS attack case study, in which we analyse the emergent behaviour of the autonomous agents.